Moonfolks enters Vietnam as local brands look beyond ASEAN

The agency will be led by Livio Grossi, who joins as Chief Creative Officer and Managing Partner. Grossi has spent more than a decade in Vietnam’s advertising industry, most recently serving as Executive Creative Director at Dentsu Redder.

The timing reflects a broader shift among Vietnamese businesses. According to UOB’s Business Outlook Study 2026, seven in 10 Vietnamese businesses expanded overseas in 2025, while nine in 10 plan further overseas expansion over the next three years. Eight in 10 intend to invest abroad within the next two years, with ASEAN the preferred destination for 65 per cent of respondents. Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia are the three most cited markets.

The same survey points to some of the practical difficulties companies face when expanding. Legal, regulatory, compliance and tax requirements, finding suitable local partners and gaining access to established business networks rank among the main challenges.

That creates an opening for service providers that can help companies adapt their brands and go to market strategies across different Southeast Asian markets.

For Moonfolks Founder and CEO Anish Daryani, Indonesia is a particular focus. Vietnamese companies entering the country face differences in consumer behavior, regulation and culture that can make strategies developed for the domestic market difficult to replicate.

“Vietnam’s economy has matured significantly over the last decade,” Daryani said. “As local brands look toward regional expansion, particularly into massive consumer markets like Indonesia, they require strategic frameworks that navigate complex cultural, regulatory, and digital moats.”

Moonfolks is bringing its “Audacious Growth” model to Vietnam, combining brand strategy, digital and social media, public relations and shopper marketing. The agency says it will use AI, creator networks and consumer data to help brands develop market specific strategies across ASEAN.

Moonfolks’ approach is also built around verifiable sustainability practices, increasingly relevant to financing and cross border partnerships; and cultural fluency, which involves adapting brand and go to market strategies to individual markets.

The approach reflects a broader change in what Vietnamese companies may need from marketing agencies as they expand abroad. For businesses entering unfamiliar consumer markets, building awareness is only one part of the challenge. They also need to understand local consumers, work with local creators and partners, and adapt their positioning without losing the identity that made the brand successful at home.

Vietnam’s expanding digital economy adds another dimension to the opportunity. The country’s digital economy was estimated at $39 billion in 2025, with e-commerce accounting for more than $25 billion, according to the e-Conomy SEA report by Google, Temasek and Bain & Company.

Moonfolks’ Vietnam operation also brings Daryani back to a market he previously worked in. He led major agency operations in Vietnam from 2012 to 2016 before moving to Indonesia and establishing the business that became Moonfolks.

The agency has begun building its Vietnamese network with local communities, creators and industry partners including Rice Content, IDM and Pmax.

Its launch campaign, “New Locals”, used three characters to explore Ho Chi Minh City’s food, culture and everyday life before culminating in an event at the Ho Chi Minh City Museum of Fine Arts on August 6.

Founded through Daryani’s acquisition of M&C Saatchi Indonesia in 2024, Moonfolks works with clients including TikTok, Unilever, Mastercard, Danone and Vivo.

Its arrival comes as Vietnam’s private sector is being encouraged to build larger, more competitive companies and expand internationally. For Moonfolks, that creates a market for a service that sits between advertising and cross border growth, helping Vietnamese brands navigate consumers and markets they have yet to fully understand.